It has been some years now. A troubadour saw a painting and it mystified a place deep within his heart. From that day, he was compelled to write what he saw with words as unique as the shapes on the soft white canvas. Ideas from a deranged mind brought clarity and success to another.
How is it possible to see greatness in the failure of one person? How can the insight found in the suffering of one person catapult another to illumination? How can two lives be brought together when generations divide them?
It wasn’t science. Though both painter and musician knew their trades well. But more than mere strokes or flicks of the wrist could bring the results both found. Science repeats, compares, contrasts and critiques. It looks to understand the known and measure it. It seeks to further itself, to establish itself, justifying itself.
It wasn’t simply art, though perhaps more so than science. Art seeks a place unknown, uncharacteristic, unplanned. Still, knowledge is needed, character required and planning to begin. It hopes to describe the indescribable. But only once. It’s not seeking repeatability or measure. Tangible. Yes, it does hope to reveal the intangible.
Vincent; a lost soul, struggling to find cohesion with his world, painted another. Seeking light in a darkness only he knew, painted swirling clouds in more than a starlit night. These stars would not shimmer, glisten, rise or fall. These strokes of the brush instead drew out the painter’s thoughts while thrusting observers into their own.
Don was drawn in deeply. His title “Vincent” sought to describe the man thru the painting. Emotions thru the melody. Synergy of lyric and notes to describe insanity and greatness. Don McLean thought out of the box because Vincent Van Gough lived there. And it is there that we find the greatness of God.
It’s not in the dance of a bumblebee or majesty of Everest. Not in the soar of the eagle or colors of the rainbow. It is not found in the depth of space or in the same of the mind of man. It is found in a misunderstood failure. It is found in suffering. It is found in centuries past on a cross.
Through the science of crucifixion and the art of mercy. In the precision of a spear thrust and the spontaneity of forgiveness. The repetition of burial and surprise of resurrection. We find greatness out of our box, because that is where God lives.
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